Statistics on metal theft offences recorded by the police in England and Wales for 2012/13 have been released for the first time.
There were 61,349 metal theft offences recorded by police in England and Wales between April 2012 and March 2013, which corresponds to 2 per cent of all police recorded crime in England and Wales for this period, based on 3,731,338 police recorded crimes.
Of the 61,349 metal theft offences recorded by police in England and Wales:
28,843 (47 per cent) were infrastructure-related offences
25,869 (42 per cent) were non-infrastructure-related offences
6,637 (11 per cent) were not classified.
With the rising cost of metal over recent years, metal thefts have become an area of increasing concern, the Home Office says. Anecdotal evidence suggests this type of offence has risen in recent years. However, because metal theft is not a crime defined in law, there is limited information available on it, the authorities admit, and it has previously not been separated out from other offences in police recorded crime statistics.
There were metal theft questions in the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). The CVS was set up to address the gap in crime statistics that exists for crimes against businesses. The 2012 survey took four industry sectors. These were manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, and accommodation and food services.
The survey found that:
14 per cent of manufacturing premises experienced metal theft
9 per cent of wholesale and retail premises experienced metal theft
9 per cent of transport and storage premises experienced metal theft
8 per cent of food and accommodation premises experienced metal theft
around one in six commercial victims of burglary and theft believed the latest incident to involve some form of metal theft.
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Home Office Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said: “Metal theft has a huge impact on communities and I’m encouraged to see an early reduction in this crime. The early signs are that our changes, including increasing financial penalties, banning cash payments and improving enforcement through the National Metal Theft Taskforce are starting to take hold. This crime affects everyone — from the stealing of cables that delay your rail journey home to the shocking theft of war memorials which costs hours of police time. We are sending out a strong message to rogue dealers – you will be caught.”
In October 2013 the government’s Scrap Metal Dealers Act, which gives authorities and the police the power to revoke licenses where they suspect illegal activity, came into effect. Magistrates can issue fines of up to £5000 to any metal trader they find dealing in cash, operating without a licence or breaching the licence conditions.
Pictured: A riverside roof in Antwerp.
